Back to Africa??? What is That About?

I haven't thought about this in a while, but I was watching something on tv the other day with flashbacks from the 60s showing white people carrying signs saying "Back to Africa" on them. For the life of me, I've NEVER understood that whole back to Africa "campaign" if you will. My whole thing is, aren't white people the ones who brought Africans to America in the first place? So how are you gonna be mad about us being here if it's your fault we're here? The Africans were minding their own business when Mr. Slave Master decided to show up and rip them out of their home. Did they ask to come here? Nope. Not even a little bit.

Then, generations later we have Mr. Slave Master's descendants telling Black people to go back to Africa. I'm pretty sure that my entire family of Black folks was born right here in America, as was I, so how are we gonna go back to a place we've never been? If you have a problem with me being here, blame your ancestors. It's like, us being here was okay for all those years you were getting over on us and forcing us into free labor but once we got our freedom our presence was suddenly a problem. Oh well, not our fault so get over it.

Anyway, that's all I really have to say on the subject. It's just something that always bothered me because if you really think about it, it makes no sense.

That's all for now....

White people and the 'N' word...wtf is going on?

A touchy subject that 'N' word isn't it? Once again I've been inspired by the situation of others. This all started with a Facebook status which just convinced me even more that Facebook can and will get you into trouble eventually. Anyway, on to the point of this post.

A white girl, who I'll call 'S', posted a rap lyric on her FB status using the N word (the 'a' version not the 'er' version). Just as a little background, this isn't the first time she's used n***a in a status of hers but I'm not entirely sure if they've been song lyrics in the past. Also her kid is half black so I'm pretty sure she's not racist. Anyway, back on topic....after she made this comment my friend, who I'll call 'L', commented on her status saying something to the effect of 'do you really need to use the N word?' From that point it got a little heated because S got all pissy and started throwing attitude and L threw it right back, etc. You know how that whole thing goes. Then another white girl, M, commented that she thought it was okay as long as it ends in 'a' and not 'er.' *sigh* And that's why I'm writing this.

To all my white friends out there it is NOT okay to use the N word ever for any reason. I don't care how "down" you think you are or if you think you have a so called "hood pass" or if you grew up around Black people your entire life. It's just not cool. Period. I don't even like when Black people use the word too much. People are just way too comfortable throwing it around these days and I just don't get it. Hell even Hispanics use is sometimes (for examples, see Fat Joe and other Latino rappers). That whole 'we took the word and turned into something positive' BS excuse that Black people try to use is just that...bullshit. How the hell do you turn a derogatory term into something positive? Is that even possible? Just another lame ass excuse if you ask me.

And before anyone asks, yes I have used the 'a' version of the word in the past and probably will again in the future. Is it right just because I'm Black? No. Is it okay because I'm Black? Maybe. At the very least it's less wrong, if that makes sense. In any case, I'm working on not using the N word at all which is completely doable. Sometimes it's the first word I think of but it's really not that hard to stop and think for a second before you actually say something out loud. I think the worst part is that I know better yet I've still used it but I'm trying. What can I say, I'm still a work in progress.